China allocates 20,000 hectares for low-income housing

BEIJING, Aug. 7 (Xinhua) -- China has allocated more than 20,000 hectares of land to support the construction of low-income housing this year, an official with the Ministry of Land and Resources said Tuesday. The nation plans to distribute 47,600 hec

China to increase income control in monopolized sectors

BEIJING, Dec. 20 (Xinhua) -- China will increase its control over high earnings in monopolized sectors next year amid efforts to address income disparities, Minister of Finance Xie Xuren said Thursday. The government will improve its control policies

Urban-rural income gap gets bigger: report

BEIJING, Aug. 14 (Xinhua) -- The ratio of income earned by urbanites to that of rural residents is about 5.2, said a blue paper released by a major government think tank on Tuesday. According to The Urban Blue Book: China City Development Report No.

Ericsson net income up 172 percent in 2010

STOCKHOLM, Jan. 25 (Xinhua) -- Global telecom giant Ericsson announced Tuesday that its net income in 2010 reached 11.2 billion kronor（克朗） (1.7 billion U.S. dollars), up 172 percent from 2009. Net income increased 172 percent to 11.2 billion

日本年轻女性收入首次超过男性

Not only can young Japanese women look forward to a longer life than their male peers, now they also make more money. Income for single women under 30 hit an average of 218,156 yen ($2,680) a month in 2009, edging above the 215,515 yen ($2,640) of th

Paris Hilton pleads guilty to cocaine possession

BEIJING, Sept. 21 (Xinhuanet) -- Hollywood socialite Paris Hilton pleaded guilty（服罪） to cocaine possession and obstructing（妨碍） an officer in a Las Vegas court on Monday, according to media reports. Hilton, 29, admitted that cocaine fo

Europeans Brace for Hard Times, Economic Woes

As economic crises intensify in Europe, governments are cutting budgets and ordinary people are tightening their belts. Even richer countries, like the Netherlands, are bracing for hard times to come. Amsterdam's residents took full advantage of the

Americans Brace for Government Shutdown

Anxiety(焦虑渴望) is filling the air in Washington D.C., as the clock ticks closer to a federal government shutdown with no budget approval. Lawmakers continued the debate Friday, leaving tourists in the nation's capital wondering whether it will

Iran 'executes Sunni militants'

Iran 'executes Sunni militants' Iran has executed members of a Sunni rebel （叛徒，反叛者） group blamed for a spate of attacks in the south-east of the country, state media says. However, there are conflicting reports （相互抵触的报道） as to wheth

Condemned Utah killer executed by firing squad

LOS ANGELES, June 18 (Xinhua) -- Ronnie Lee Gardner became the third person in Utah and the United States to have been executed by a firing squad when he was put to death by five marksmen on Friday morning, a local newspaper reported. The killer, 49,

William, Kate Spark Comparison to Charles

Prince William and Catherine Middleton's big wedding day is just hours away. And while people around the world prepare to toast to their future, some are also drawn to that other happy day nearly 30 years ago when William's parents, Prince Charles an

Gay men at higher risk for cancer

BEIJING, May 10 (Xinhuanet) -- Researchers from California, Unated States, found that sexual orientation could play a role in cancer and more gay men are reported being cancer survivors(幸存者) than straight men, according to findings in the journ

U.S. rover landing on Mars to be live broadcast

WASHINGTON, July 31 (Xinhua) -- U.S. space agency NASA on Tuesday confirmed its most advanced planetary rover, Curiosity will land on the Martian surface at 1:31 a.m. EDT (0531 GMT) on Aug. 6 and the landing process will be broadcast live from Times

Prison University Gives Inmates Hope

A college education is out of reach for most state and federal prisoners. Californias San Quentin is one of the few prisons in the country that offers college-level courses. Jody Lewen has run the facilitys college program for over a decade and she's

MESSENGER Probe Sends First Mercury Images

The U.S. space agency(代理中介) has released the first ever image taken of the surface of Mercury from a spacecraft orbiting the planet. The black and white image, posted on the NASA website Tuesday, shows a surface pocked with craters of varying

New Discoveries Suggest Earlier Settlement of Americans

The first human inhabitants（居民 ） of North America settled at least 2,500 years earlier than the people previously identified as the first Americans. So say archaeologists, who have unearthed a trove of stone artifacts belonging to the early A

1.09 mln cataracts patients cured under subsidies

BEIJING, May 22 (Xinhua) -- More than 1 million cataracts patients in China have been cured in the past three years with the help of 872 million yuan (138 million U.S. dollars) in subsidies from the central government, according to Health Ministry fi

U.S. House of Representatives passes Chinese currency bill

WASHINGTON, Sept. 29 (Xinhua) -- The U.S. House of Representatives（众议院） on Wednesday passed a bill to press China to let its currency rise faster, amid accusations that China suppressed the value of its currency and placed a drag on U.S. jo

Shooting Victims Named; Obama Travels to Connecticut

NEW YORK U.S. President Barack Obama travels on Sunday to Newtown, Connecticut, in an effort to comfort a shattered town reeling from a school shooting that left 20 young children and six adults dead. A White House statement released Saturday said Ob

Environmental protection urged amid economic slowdown

BEIJING, May 26 (Xinhua) -- Governments and enterprises should hold on to emission reduction efforts despite cooling economy and resist the temptation of spurring economy through energy-inefficient industrial projects, officials and experts said Satu